Boilers Part 16 – High Efficiency Boiler Disadvantages

The Direct Vent Condensing Boiler is the best choice for any home. However, you must be careful when selecting the right boiler for you.

In order to successfully transfer the heat from the flame to the water as easily as possible, the vast majority of condensing boilers force the water through a very restrictive heat exchanger with many small passages. This can cause 2 very serious problems.

The first problem is that if one of these passages becomes blocked with debris or dirt from the system, the heat exchanger will quickly overheat and fail. A heat exchanger replacement on a high efficiency boiler can be in excess of $2,000. It would be a shame to lose all your fuel savings on a major repair like this. These restrictive heat exchangers require extensive cleaning annually. Since many people neglect to call for service, and many contractors don’t even know about this required cleaning, many people have suffered disappointment and heat exchanger failure. Life doesn’t have to be this complicated. If this boiler is installed with the proper flow design, dirt and air separator and cleaned as per the manufacturers’ instructions, it will last a long time.

In my next post, I will discuss the second problem with these restrictive heat exchangers.